Thursday, 3 December 2009

Ever since Camilla and Lila turned 4, the Sitko house has been feeling decidedly small.

Right now, the girls don't mind being crowded into their tiny bedroom, which was never meant to hold two beds and two desks.

For the adults in the house, the lack of space is definitely becoming noticeable. Julian and Collette can't remember the last time they had a conversation without a soundtrack of Mary Mack in the background.

They would both have to admit that they really enjoy those three hours their granddaughters are at pre-school - the house is oddly but pleasantly quiet.

Despite all that, Collette would love another grandchild. Collette and her friend Vivienne love to get together and brag about their grandchildren. They each have four but Collette thinks five would be even better. It seems like a good number and it'd be just one more thing for Collette to brag about.

Julian only works part-time now - bigwigs like Julian can set their own hours - but even being at the office less doesn't prevent him from bringing home a very nasty case of the flu.

On the very same day Julian came home sick, Kirstin brought what appeared to be the same illness home with her.

Workaholic that she is, Kirstin was rather distressed at being so sick. She had zero energy and crawled into bed the second she got home.

She woke up, wide awake, at about 1 that morning. Careful not to wake David, she crawled out of bed and went over some papers for work. If David knew, he'd order her back to bed but while everyone was asleep, Kirstin was happy to be able to get some work done. She was in her pyjamas, she was sitting! That's enough, right?

David was worried about Camilla and Lila contracting the flu from Kirstin or Julian, so after Kirstin assured him that she was fine and planning on sleeping all day anyway, David took the girls ice skating.Camilla was pretty terrible and didn't seem to improve as the morning went on.

David wasn't a world class skater himself, so that wasn't a surprise.

Lila was a natural though!

Not to mention kind of a show-off!

Maybe Kirstin didn't ever really have the flu or maybe it was just a 24 hour bug. The main thing was that her recovery was very fast and she had hardly missed any work at all. She had a day off the next day and David was excited to have her all to himself for once. David couldn't believe it but Kirstin had recently agreed to try for another baby. David's wanted another for about 3 years and while Kirstin had never eliminated the possibility, she was unsure.

While his daughter enjoyed her day off with her husband, Julian was still sick in bed. He was pretty sick of being sick.

The problem was he was just bored. He'd tried to while away the time by sleeping and he passed a few hours that way. He was never one for sleeping in the middle of the day though and the fact that he was sick didn't change that.

He didn't usually have much time for gossip but he even found himself pondering recent scandals. That's when he knew he was really bored.

Julian recovered, of course, but it took him a lot longer than it took Kirstin. Maybe he had a bad strain, or maybe at 67, his immune system just wasn't what it once was.David and Kirstin haven't told anybody yet but Kirstin is already pregnant! They weren't expecting it to happen so fast - she's only just gone off her birth control - but they're having a baby. Kirstin isn't nearly as scared about this baby as she was about Camilla and Lila. This time around, she's much more relaxed.

She's going against her natural instincts right now and is trying really hard not to overwork herself and is even going to bed at the same time as David. It means she won't be up for a promotion any time soon but she likes her job as it is now, so that's not the end of the world.

This was the second house to be hit by the Flu Epidemic ROS. Julian and Kirstin both rolled to contract the flu so that's 4 (not) down, 6 (hopefully not) to go. I am amazed that no one else in the house caught it. I was sure I'd have 6 sick Sims and I had a horrible fear one of the twins would die. Kirstin really did get better really fast. I don't think she was sick for more than a day and a half. I didn't do anything special for her, she just slept and read. She must have really wanted to go back to work!

David's had the want for a baby for a good while. Kirstin has never rolled one. Last time, I watched their conversation topics for clues but this time, I noticed they were trying for a baby every single time they woohooed. Which was a lot this round! So I took her off birth control and then she ended up getting pregnant by risky woohoo anyway!She's due in Autumn 2018. There's only one baby right now but there was only one baby last time when she was in her first trimester and we all know how that turned out! I might look for a house with large bedrooms, just in case of another set of twins!

Flu urgh! My family, including me, all had suspected swine flu recently and it affected each of us differently.We're all recovered now but I know exactly how Julian was feeling - love the pic of him slumped on the sofa totally bored :)

Maisie, I'd cry if I had a kid die, I think. The closest I've come is a teen, probably in Round 13 or 14.

You're welcome for the help, though I think I just confirmed what you already knew! When I set the ideal family number, I look at their LTW. If it specifies a number of children, I'll go with that. If it doesn't, I usually set it to 2 for most Sims and 1 for Romance/Pleasure. But I'm not very rigid with it and sometimes I just set it to what I feel like.

Anilyn, I hope you're all feeling better now!

Julian's not used to not having anything to do, the poor guy. This was the first round I didn't send him to his diner - he was sick until the last day I played them.

Simmington, I thought it was kind of fitting that Julian got it worse than Kirstin. It's so often the case with the real life flu too. I didn't do much different in the way I cared for them.

I can never not look how many babies they're having! I guess you'd know in real life, so it seems right that you'd know in game too. Although, I'm planning on clicking "random" one of these days and seeing if I get triplets or quads, so I won't know then! That will be a surprise!

Mao, I have heard of the rooting for a snack animation but I haven't yet tried that allmenus cheat. I'm a bit nervous about starting my game in debug mode. I'm going to try it one of these days though!

Shana, I'm glad everyone survived too! I have a few people coming up who I am dreading giving the flu too so I can only hope my lucky streak continues!

Lunar, the girls are really cute and they play together autonomously all the time. Not all my siblings do!

And thankfully, Kirstin's not having twins this time, though the bedrooms in their new house are large enough to allow for it! 3 will be it for them, though I'm expecting David to roll up the 10 children want once this one is born, just like Caleb did when Cara had the twins.

Yay, mor ebabies. LOL Do any of your sims ever roll the have baby fear but never roll the have baby want? And have you locked that fear but made them have a baby anyway? LOL

It is funny how the flu effects each sim. Some end up hacking up a lung whereas others breeze through their sickness. I will never understand it. But I guess in RL some people don't get as sick, so there ya go!

Riverdale, I go more towards fulfilling wants than avoiding fears but I have actually never locked a fear! All my Sims eventually have children so if they've got the fear, well, tough because it's going to happen for them sooner or later. But lately, I've noticed my Sims only get the Have a Baby fear if they've already had children. It never seems to pop up for childless Sims, which is odd!

And yup, the flu seems to work in the game just like it does in real life, in terms of severity. Although I had the flu a few years ago and I wish all I had was a cough and a severe urge to need the bathroom! I felt much more miserable than that!